I apologize for the gap in news updating; both my job and my home life have been rather busy these last few weeks, and I’ve had precious little time to stroll through “the Ultimasphere” to see what has transpired in terms of project developments and file updates.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the news!

PT-BR Underworld Translation

This translation of Ultima Underworld to Portuguese is now 100% complete, with all text strings in the game fully translated.

They are seeking testers to look for errors in grammar and spelling. So if you, O Reader, are conversant in both Portuguese and English, and wouldn’t mind playing through Ultima Underworld again, be sure to visit the project website and drop them a line.

The patch can be downloaded from that same website, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Exult

I noticed that the unstable Exult 1.4 build for Windows had been updated on May 3rd. The notable correction in this release deals with a crash that could be caused by a trap’s projectile effect.

As usual, the snapshot can be downloaded from the Exult website or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Pentagram

There hasn’t been any news from the Pentagram team since December of last year, but they are obviously still working on the project itself; the Windows snapshot that is available for download was updated on April 23rd, and can be downloaded either from the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

EUO

As of May 5th, the 3D client for EUO has been updated, and can be downloaded either the project website or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Notable changes in this release are the addition of “popups” (I assume this is in reference to either in-game dialogues or message windows?), a help screen, the ability to re-map keys, and a few other odds and ends.

Project Britannia

The britannia_art.dsres and britannia_logic.dsres files have been updated. Changes this go-round include the addition of GUI elements for several throwable weapons, shoes(!!), and a bunch of new textures and meshes. Also, a Yew tree for Ben to chop has been added (methinks this is derived from the Ultima 6 Project?).

The updated files can be downloaded from the Project Britannia wiki or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Though not specifically an update to the actual remake project, the folks at the Ultima 6 Project would like to draw our attention to a charity group that they would like to encourage would-be donors to the project to support instead:

As many of you know, the U6 Project has been going strong for several years now, and it’s cost us a fair amount of cash to keep it going. Every once in a while we’ll get someone asking us if they can donate some money to the project. Well, since it’s an all-volunteer project and not a commercial venture, we can’t accept money. However – we’ve recently realized that there’s no reason in the world we can’t suggest a charity to which you could donate instead. While gaming is certainly a worthy cause, we think that it would be even better to give the gift of life and donate to the Susan G Komen foundation for breast cancer research.

http://www.komen.org/

Please note: The U6 Project is not affiliated with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization in any way, shape or form. We’d just like to recommend that you give your money to them instead of offering it to us. Thank you.

So maybe, just maybe, O Reader, go forth and make a bit of a donation in the names of the folks of Team Archon. I’m sure they’d appreciate it!

One last note: someone by the name of Chris (with an email address at grimmstudios.com) contacted me in regard to Ultima 3. Chris, if you’re reading this, I just sent my reply to you again; the last few attempts have resulted in the message bouncing back to me. I apologize for the delay, and would encourage you — if this latest attempt doesn’t get through — to contact me again and provide an alternative email address.

Tags: 3D, Dungeon Siege, EUO, Exult, Pentagram, Portuguese, Project Britannia, Ultima 3, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima 7, Ultima 8, Ultima Underworld, Windows

Produced by: Team Lazarus & Team Archon
Website: Project Britannia
Releases:
* [drain file 432 url Milestone 2 Release] ([drain file 432 size])

Updates (may be unstable):
* [drain file 421 url Britannia Art] ([drain file 421 size])
* [drain file 422 url Britannia Logic] ([drain file 422 size])
* [drain file 423 url Britannia Sound] ([drain file 423 size])
* [drain file 417 url Britannia Map] ([drain file 417 size])

Utilities
* [drain file 430 url Project Britannia Development Environment] ([drain file 430 size])
* [drain file 429 url Container Override example] ([drain file 429 size])
* [drain file 428 url Dungeon Siege Font Builder] ([drain file 428 size])
* [drain file 427 url Dungeon Siege Skrit API] ([drain file 427 size])
* [drain file 426 url Skrit/Template Cross-reference] ([drain file 426 size])
* [drain file 412 url Dungeon Siege Toolkit] ([drain file 412 size])
* [drain file 416 url Lazarus Lorebook Editor] ([drain file 416 size])
* [drain file 433 url Rapid Tank Creator] ([drain file 433 size])
* [drain file 415 url Siege Tools for Eclipse (Full)] ([drain file 415 size])
* [drain file 419 url Siege Tools for Eclipse 1.0.29 (Plugin)] ([drain file 419 size])
* [drain file 413 url Siege University Compilation] ([drain file 413 size])
* [drain file 434 url Tank Viewer] ([drain file 434 size])
* [drain file 435 url U6 Project UI Designer] ([drain file 435 size])
* [drain file 425 url Conversation Compiler] ([drain file 425 size])
* [drain file 420 url Conversation Editor Plugin for Siege Tools] ([drain file 420 size])
* [drain file 418 url Book Editor Plugin for Siege Tools] ([drain file 418 size])
* [drain file 424 url NPC/Schedule/Chest Generator] ([drain file 424 size])

Milestone 1 Release:
* [drain file 110 url Project Britannia (1 of 3)] ([drain file 110 size])
* [drain file 111 url Project Britannia (2 of 3)] ([drain file 111 size])
* [drain file 112 url Project Britannia (3 of 3)] ([drain file 112 size])

This ambitious project, a joint venture arising from the copperative developments of Ultima V: Lazarus and the Ultima 6 Project — both Dungeon Siege-based remakes of their respective Ultima titles — aims to create a platform for the easier creation of Ultima remakes (and, one would assume, spinoffs).

It’s “short list” of features is really too long to name here, but includes dynamic weather, ship navigation (a feature lost in many modern RPGs), complete day/night cycle, NPC scheduling, reagent-based spellcasting, moongates, dynamic factions, and a custom-build branching conversation system.

Or, to sum it all up in three words: it looks cool.

Now, the development team for Project Britannia is pretty active, and they are constantly putting out updates. The ones hosted here are current to the best of Aiera’s knowledge, but they may be a few days stale. To that end, the most current versions of the update files can always be found at the Project Britannia Change Log. Please note that these updates are likely unstable at present.

Tags: Dungeon Siege, Project Britannia, Ultima, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima V: Lazarus

This is a not-quite-complete Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld. A full translation does (or did) exist, but I seem to have misplaced the relevant file, and it is no longer available for download from the developer.

Tags: Portuguese, translation, Ultima Underworld